After Shaming Armenian Oligarch, Vendor Banned from Selling Herbs Outside His Supermarket

The manager of Yerevan City supermarket in Yerevan's Shengavit district prohibited Flora Torosyan from selling her herbs outside the supermarket after she urged Yerevan City owner, MP Samvel Aleksanyan not to lie when responding to journalists' questions, as well as to "read God's Commandments from time to time."

In an interview with Epress.am, Torosyan (pictured) said she had a dispute with Aleksanyan on the opening day of the new shopping center Yerevan Mall, when she heard him, talking to reporters, denying that either he or his family owns a business.

"I said, why are you lying? Aren't the [Yerevan] Cities yours? Have you no shame? And Lfik [the nickname the public gives to Samvel Aleksanyan] says, ‘Who’s this crazy [woman]?’ I said, ‘Why am I crazy? Read the Bible and you’ll see that the Commandments forbid lying.’ He relented. Then I said: I’m a businessman, you’re a businessman; you’re a father of many children, I’m a grandmother of many children; you get benefits, I get benefits; I said, so to whom do all those [Yerevan] Cities belong?" she said. 

According to Torosyan, immediately the day after, Yerevan City manager Tigran (she didn't know his last name) chased her away from the store.

"He kicked my box [stand] of greens to turn it over, then demanded, 'Don't sit here and don't enter our store.' But even the police doesn't forbid me from selling greens in this neighborhood; the district council knows too, that I have no husband, I feed a large family, and that's how we live," she said. 

For 3 days now Torosyan has been unable to sell her herbs outside the supermarket.